In Bethryl's dreams, she saw Ashar, and around him was nothing less than total destruction.
He was standing in the intersection of two worlds: one, the world that she knew and grew up with, filled with the things you could see, or taste, or touch. The other world was unseen, and could only be reached with a different kind of sense altogether, the kind that Ashar possessed in abudance. The other world was a world of unreal energy, and yet in that dream it seemed more real than anything she had ever seen before.
Ashar raised his hands, and the first world she knew about to dissolve as if trapped in an acidic substance, until it ruptured out of existence completely, and only the other world remained. And before Bethryl's eyes, she now witnessed what she was beginning to understand as truth.
"Wake up, Bethryl."
She opened her eyes to find Maereth kneeling beside her.
"Is it my turn to keep watch?" Bethryl asked.
"No. It's morning now. Thank you for your help. You did a great job."
"It must be annoying for you," Bethryl said, "having to rely on someone like me. Someone with no abilities. No value in a place like this."
"You are of great value to us," Maereth replied. "We need everyone we can get. When we get down from this mountain, we're gonna be deeper in the forest now. There's a reason people don't travel out here alone."
"Is that why—"
A flash of light tore through Bethryl's vision, like a red scream ripping through her senses.
"Can you smell something?" Maereth asked. "There's something strange here. Like something in the air."
Maereth looked around, but all she saw were thick ranks of trees pressing in from every side, with a view from the mountain of the sleeping forest. For a moment, her mind imagined faint wisps of purple smoke passing through, but the thought slipped away almost immediately.
"Never mind," she said.
It was now the second morning since the fall of the Granite Compact. They had not run into any other groups, or beasts, as of yet. However, all around they could feel energy testing them, wondering if it would be of any use to attack them. There were strange voices in the distance, weeping voices, incomprehensible.
"Are you going to kill Ashar?" Bethryl asked.
Maereth's focus snapped to her, sharp as a needle.
"Heh, so you really can see things," she said. "Looks like there's no hiding anything from you. I told you, Bethryl, you really are valuable."
For a brief moment, warmth passed between them. Then it vanished.
"You need to forget about that man," Maereth said.
A mile above, Ashar's eyes opened from a torture of sleep, as he struggled with the pain of his broken body. His use of the Pendulum Blade while underdeveloped had now pushed him to a stage where his limbs only twitched with spasms without any function.
"Had a nice rest?" Issen asked, standing over him.
"You've been planning this for two nights," Ashar said. "If you're going to do it, then do it now. There's no point waiting."
"Shut up," Issen said.
He stepped back and summoned an Axiom Arrow.
"Alright," Issen said. "I'll do it. I've had enough of you anyway."
"It wasn't my fault the Compact fell," Ashar said. "Vaelor would have tried to kill you regardless."
"No," Issen snapped. "Don't pretend you're some righteous devil or necessary evil. I've heard enough scum talk like that. We had something back there, with Kareth, Vaelor, Rovick. It wasn't perfect, but it worked. Then you showed up, and everything went to hell. Rebellions. Soldiers patrolling the woods. Part of me thinks that's exactly what you wanted."
Ashar smiled, as if he knew something Issen didn't. Issen drew the arrow back further.
"You know what else?" Issen said. "You look like a kid, barely into your twenties, but you act so certain. Like you understand everything. It's all bullshit. It has to be."
"I don't know anything," Ashar said. "But I have faith in what I'm doing."
"I'm not here to have a heart-to-heart with you."
"You've lived as a bandit your whole life," Ashar said. "What kept you from breaking? You didn't rationalise it. You couldn't. We never really know anything. What kept you alive was that one day, you took a leap of faith into something. That something still keeps you alive."
"That's all faith is," Ashar continued. "I have faith in my path. You understand what I am saying."
"The path you're walking?" Issen sneered. "I heard what you said to Kareth. You're a vile creature. Death follows you. It's a shame my friends didn't kill you."
"Yes I remember Vaelor and Rovick." Ashar said. " The ones who betrayed you."
"Don't say their names!"
What Issen waited for was a moment when Ashar would realise how close he was coming to death, so that he would apologise, and so that Issen would see even a faint light of humanity in this man, so that he could understand him. But that moment never arrived, and it only made Issen falter.
"They made mistakes," Issen said. "But they weren't like you. They would never plan what you're planning. You talked to Kareth about destroying everything. No one has that right."
"Yes," Ashar said. "I do."
Issen stomped down on Ashar's face. Bone cracked. Still, Ashar's eyes did not change.
"You live in our world!" Issen shouted. "Don't you owe anyone anything?"
"There are things beyond this world," Ashar replied. "That's where my obligation lies."
"Then you die here."
"Very well."
Issen stiffened.
"You think I don't know where we're going?" Ashar said. "We're heading deeper. You wouldn't risk this place unless you were following Kareth's plan. You're heading toward the Shadow Clan to hand me over."
"Like we care about them."
"Then tell me," Ashar smiled. "Who else do you have left?"
Issen prepared to let the arrow fly into Ashar's throat, to let him die a truly painful death. He had done it before, and he could do it again. But there was something stopping him, and what was it? Was it his fear? No. It was the mind of this man. Somehow, this man had a mind that could force the unprepared into submission.
"This isn't over," Issen said. "We'll settle this later."
He chose to let Ashar live one more day.
That night, Bethryl dreamed of Ashar again.
"I can save them," he said from the darkness. "All of them."
"Why?" she asked. "Why is any of this happening?"
He didn't answer. His blue eyes faded into shadow until only a void remained.
"No one can stop me," he said. "I have so much left to do."
Something called to her from the darkness. She wanted to run, but she knew it would be waiting at the end of every path.
She woke to find Ashar, Maereth, and Issen sitting around a fire. Maereth studied the air.
"It's here again," she said. "Can anyone sense it?"
"You're paranoid," Issen said. "These crying sounds are messing with you."
Another weeping voice echoed and Issen fired an arrow into the darkness.
"You ain't taking us with you!" he laughed.
A purple haze drifted past. Ashar watched it intently until it vanished.
For the rest of the night, Maereth and Issen trained Bethryl in Axiom, while Ashar watched from a distance, then looked up at the sky with a furious glare.
"We are all equal," he muttered, "We are all equal underneath the painful weight of these heavens."
Maereth showed how to make a blade, but Bethryl could not do it. Issen showed how to summon energy, but even this Bethryl could not do.
"I just don't see how you guys do it," she said. "It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't even seems logical."
"You just do it," said Issen, "Nothing more complicated than that. You do it, and you don't overthink it."
"Is that how it started with you guys?" asked Bethryl, "How did you learn to use this energy?"
"We never learned it, dear." said Maereth. "We were born with it. It's amazing to me that you can't seem to do it."
"It's because she has come from one of the King's Clans." said Ashar. "This is what they do. She probably has never even heard of what energy is until now. She has no-"
"Who the hell asked you to speak?" Issen screamed and spat. "You just sit there and stay quiet!"
"Wait, please let him finish." said Bethryl. "I want to understand."
Ashar stared at Issen who looked around to all sides and then stepped back.
"You have no abilities of the spirit, because faith in your own spirit," said Ashar to abilities, "Believe in what lies beyond the physical world, and what lies beyond will find you. That's where this Axiom energy comes from."
It was Bethryl and Maereth's turn to watch during the night. Maereth studied the air around her, trying to notice if something had changed. Bethryl stared into the darkness of the night.